The most important feedback you'll ever read. Please read/answer.

I'm a little sad while typing this, because I know no matter what I say this won't be changed. Not because you don't know better, you simply just don't have the funds.

But honestly, what are you thinking? Are you actually releasing a game like this? With that much zoning and instancing? If the game wouldn't be able to stand or immerse you as a single player game how do you think it's going to survive as an mmo?

I was really impressed upon logging in and seeing all the detail in everything, how much interaction there was with the world, no quest hub grinding with zones being pointless, you're actually trying to do something new here, the graphics aren't good, but that really doesn't matter, I'll take good gameplay and design over graphics any day.

I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that this game NEEDS to be open world. Please don't release the game like this, you may as well not release the game at all because this completely kills immersion. Despite what some die hard fans will say on here, as the game is, even if you improve upon every feature, this won't succeed in the market, it's far too outdated, what are you even thinking? Do you really think this will catch on? With that much zoning? It doesn't feel like a world.

You may not have the budget to make an open world, but ANYTHING is better than what you have now, even if you have to make a lot of the open world "empty space", then please do so, at least it will be there. put a few trees here and there, or keep the fast travel thing you have now, but take off ALL zoning barriers and let people free roam through the world, cram the cities and points of interest closer together if you have to? I don't understand why you wouldn't do this in the first place? Most gamers wouldn't even notice the difference, it would merely take away the stigma of your game being so instanced/immersion breaking and closed off. Then perhaps when you make some money improve the game further and add more things in the open world, but please don't build the foundation of the game like this, it's horrible, and everyone I've spoken to about it so far agrees with me. I really can't stress enough how important this is for the well being and success of the game, PLEASE don't be too influenced by this tiny community you have so far, because anything beyond this, I promise you, would deem it unacceptable.

The other problem with this game is the combat. I don't exactly know what you have going on here just yet, but whatever it is I don't even want to start to understand it. A dynamic combat system that throws random skills at you to use? What is that? Why not stick to a classic feel, something like WoW, with good synergy between spells, making sure there's counters to everything which would make pvp possible, and in depth, not just a stand still spam contest to see who's health bar goes down the quickest? You probably don't have the budget or experience to create something like Blizzard, so that's fine, but at least make it more user friendly. It's simply unpleasant right now. In fact, make the entire UI more user friendly showing what spells to use/what's available, and ditch this whole deck building nonsense. I don't care how easy it is once you get the hang of it, I shouldn't have to get the hang of it and I don't want to, and the masses won't want to either, it needs better design. Aside from that, the system isn't even good when you DO understand it, I'm sure many can agree it needs heavy amounts of work right now.

This game reminds me of a better version of runescape, with a third person perspective, not running in a browser, WASD movement, more interaction with the world and better graphics. <That description is a dream come true for many people, so please create this game properly. That is if you're in it for the passion and not the money.

Some other little gripes I thought I'd mention since it's early on are:

1. Please activate "jump" instantly when the spacebar gets pushed down, not when you let go of the button. This gave me the illusion for a while that the jumping in the game is very clunky, when I was in fact releasing the spacebar a few milliseconds after I pressed it.

2. Add an option to be able to rotate the camera alone, with the left mouse button, look to WoW for an example, in fact, try and copy their whole movement/camera control system, the best, most responsive smoothest movement system ever created in a game. Again, that's to rotate the camera alone, not have the character change direction to where you point the camera.

There are many other problems I can go into like general clunkiness of the game and a bad game engine, etc. However these other problems don't matter to me, even fixing the combat doesn't matter to me, I can't expect WoW's pvp system and synergy between the classes/spells in a game like this and from a team as classic as you guys where mmo combat used to be "stand still". What I expect from you guys is, unlike wow, you have the ability to create an actual immersive mmorpg, because yes this will be played mostly as an mmo, sorry to break it to you. WoW is missing everything that used to put "RPG" in "MMORPG", the game progression and design is terrible, the only good thing about it is the game engine and the responsiveness/depth of the classes and skills. In the end I don't mind having an updated runescape with bad combat and control. So remember, if there's one thing you do change about this game, ONE thing, you may disregard everything else I just said for this one feature, but please,

Make this game open world, and don't bother releasing the game without it. If you do release it, you may make profit, but mark my words on the downfall of its mass appeal, the design choices and plans you have in mind all sound very impressive, but will be redundant if you miss this one obvious drawback. If you're not after money, which I don't think you are, you should be smart enough and experienced enough to know how much damage this would cause. I hope you listen to this and everyone else telling you how much of a problem this is. In one way or another, this needs to be open world, delay it further if you have to.

Good luck, and remember, invisible walls are never immersive.

 

Please read up before posting one of these gigantic diatribes. The reason for the dual scale model is not JUST funding (though that is a major concern). It serves a purpose. It lets the team update instances as events occur, so that when you next enter it, changes made by players and story events are automatically updated.

This exact complaint has been posted umpteen times on this forum, so it's not really original feedback. The instanced nature of this game is one of the most "set in stone" aspects of the game. There has been talk about (at some point in the future) allowing movement between certain zones without entering the map, but the zones are not going away. If that's a deal-breaker, than I humbly suggest the game is simply not for you. Good luck in your search for something that is.

Cheers.

 

I don't understand why people don't research a game or watch some current videos of prior releases before theu spend money on a PreAlpha and then realize it's not how they hoped.

 

I didn't buy PreAlpha, I was invited through a giveaway. I thought I'd pop in and see what all the hype was about. Turns out the hype is solely on the name who's making the game, if this game was out right now by someone who wasn't "Lord British" this would be laughed at, albeit the interesting ideas in theory, and a somewhat interactive world, it will be all for nothing if it's THIS instanced.

I don't understand why people don't just agree with someone on the internet when they actually agree with them, but instead have to inflict some form of opposition when they attack something that they like. I'm here trying to give a suggestion to make the game better, the game that YOU like. Don't get all passive aggressive with me because I'm pointing out a flaw, this is a big flaw and the game will probably get one tenth of the praise it deserves because of it. How about we try and give such core suggestions this early on while we still can? Whether they happen or not? No? Of course not.

 

This reminds me of adverts on sites that read "THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS YOU'LL EVER READ" and link to hyped up weight loss supplements or pheromone products.

I'm happy with the aspects of the game you're criticizing. There are benefits to a single-scale map, but also a lot of benefits to a dual-scale map. It helps the world feel a lot larger, and removes the need for easy fast travel solutions. This is exactly what I don't like --

If they could make a world feel just as huge in single-scale where nobody complained about the tedium of travel, that would be cool. But if they cram cities really close together and add in easy fast travel options, that's not a compromise I want to make, and I prefer the game as it is.

And keep in mind we're going to see things like random encounters and such on the overland map in the future. This also makes allocating more space for housing easier, since all you have to do is expand the space in a single scene, instead of crowding out wilderness even further in an already cramped world.

 

I wish I researched more indeed. I kind of assumed it was an open world since most MMO's are. A bit like buying a car and expecting it to have wheels...

It would be great if it could be changed to a system like Skyrim. Instances for caves/mines/dungeons/city's etc. but still an open world to explore. Guess nostalgia (UO) was holding my wallet when I pledged. Will still play of course and see how it all turns out.

 

So you don't want to push the open world idea any further, because of what the developers have said while making this decision, and that it's "set in stone". Because of this, you don't want to petition or question it at all, even after reading my OP that has some possible solutions, albeit not the best, but still solutions, I'm sure they can come up with something better than what they've done.

But no I agree, we shouldn't petition the idea, let's accept their solid decision to have a completely zoned off instanced world while creating a game where the premise is immersion, because the big boss said so.

Yeah, that's how change happens doesn't it.

Cheers.

 

Perhaps adding a feature that allows us to walk from one zone to the next on the fly would be a good alternative. I don't see how this is going to change completely though.

 

No, please. Waste all the time and energy you want trying to change a core feature of the game. Good luck.

 

Just because the feature doesn't change doesn't make his points invalid. A lot of people are saying this is immersion breaking. Are they just automatically wrong because this is how the game is going to be?

Truth is we will have a dual scale map. That won't change. However these people who don't like will likely not change either so at least it is good feedback on a certain level. No point in getting angry at the guy to give him an even worse impression of the community as well as the negative impression of the map.

 

I don't have my finger on the pulse of the gaming world and thus am unqualified to speak for it or to predict its reaction. Nor will I bandy about the overused and over-extended word "immersion". What I do know is that, for me, the benefits of an overworld map far outweigh those of a seamless oneworld. I also know that it is much too common for people to speak as if they are the voice of everyone because they interpret their own bubble as being the world. My own crowd prefers deep roleplay, avoids fights and would enjoy watching a player-created play for an hour or more. I also know that there are many gamers who would not enjoy that. I accept that they need to be accommodated too, sometimes to the detriment of my desires.

It has been well documented why they made the decision to use an overworld and the many benefits it offers. I agree with those decisions.

Would that I could eat my cake both now and later, but I'm afraid that that possibility is distinctly unappetizing.

 

Noooooooo, no WoW combat!!!!! I can't hear it anymore. How can anyone really like this lame, boring, pointless excuse for a combat system that has been done to death in games??? Aaaahhhhh!!!!

As for the zones. Imagine this game like Baldur's Gate if you want to, where you have certain points of interest that you can explore in detail and a world map you travel on. Only the world map in SotA is much more dynamic as you can roam around freely and with the improvements that have been announced it will be interesting and fun roaming around in the world view, I'm sure of that.

 

I left this alone until now.

Why should I agree with you just because you want me too? In your opinion(with limited knowledge of the game) you have an idea. Don't try and tell us all that your right and we should all listen. I'm fine with you giving your opinion, even if I know why it didn't happen that way.

 

What is the difference between this and the way UO was played. Most people recalled or gated to where they wanted to go. Almost no one traveled the roads any more. Open world is a great idea that everyone wants and is almost never used.

 

Hello tomsback,

this and this

is the most important feedback you'll ever get from me

 

Well for one I never had to respec my character in UO. It was nice because the skills were predictable, and I knew what I was working for. Also the PvP was balanced because I knew everybody had a max of 700 skill points not an ever increasing skill repository. Stuff like that.

 

It sounds like you're basically saying that the system is really, really clunky at this point and needs to not be this way by release. I agree. It's completely unplayable to me right now. There are some things, like combat, where it's tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It might work, someday, but there's a really long way to go.

Instancing is fine. Just keep smoothing the transitions. Nearly every game is instanced. They just do a better job of hiding it.

I'd rather they massively cut scope and just did a few things well. Most games fail by being too ambitious.

 

Sorry Tomshack and of course with limited knowledge of what has been going on here for the past 18 months or so, you are trying to set off a mutiny. There is so much you do not understand or know. So for one thing as the quote says 'if you only look at what is, you might not see what could be'. There is no way to see it all in a pre alpha. For one thing I feel that to comment things that have not been tried out discredits the comments as per the combat comments. Every game has moments of not knowing what you are doing, and in this combat you can lock all the skills and play just like any game out there, so the comments don't fly. Just lock your skills and off you go. This discredits the comments immediately. This could be the best and most fun combat system out there once all the features and tweaks are in based on our feedback, but would you truly know that, no you would not. I even tried out rift for quite a while and I did not want to, but I can give a comment here and there now for example. Perhaps just come back when the game is completed or wait it out with us of course. It seems you are speaking from a desire for a great game, and I do hear that feeling coming through in what you say. I believe this will be that game. Some reactions are perfectly normal and expected in the state this game is at the moment if you just jump in off the streets. This is not a game yet and not for the feint hearted. lol The full visualization is not there at the moment and will not be for quite some time. So I am not trying to be overly critical, I do understand and hear your frustration and disappointment, but consider it to be a bit self inflicted without all the facts. Hang in there if you'd like or just wait for more things added in and check again in a few releases. Doomsday comments don't help the game. ***cheers and best wishes to you Tomshack***

 

That's extremely well said Sir Cabirus !

The spirit of this post to me, is that there is allot of information to take in, or attempt find somewhere. Google is a great answer for that!
Our new players may not be as computer savvy anymore because of the XBox & PlayStation culture which has overshadowed our gaming venues. So, when a common new player comes to our forums, they can become easily lost to find information in a computer way and are in need of an area of our forums to go for all current information in an easy to understand way. Yet we don't have the budget for that

Maybe we need a place like how TheMadHermit set up his videos, where we can have a line up of information or training videos. I know we have some posts and threads out here that have done some of this style of information, yet they too maybe not pointed out well enough for our outside public to easily find because those threads are not "in you face" sort of as a welcoming mat is in front of a doorway for our guests to wipe there gaming feet on

We've only just seen the tip of this iceberg of new players and their comments coming... >>>---> and so did "The Titanic"

This is why I believe that this is the most important post here, because Sir Cabirus seems to be pointing toward "The Life Rafts!"
>>>---> >>>---> >>>---> >>>---> >>>---> >>>---> this and this

~Time Lord~

 

OP wants wow combat. Leaves thread with annoyed face on, disappointed with misleading title.